A/N: Thanks for reviewing!

"Time heals wounds" is absurd as a theorem but I can see above the sky's getting clearer

"Rose said you wanted to tell us something?" Finn's voice startled her and she turned around. He was looking at her almost nervously and she felt a twinge of relief. He would likely stick by her whatever she said. She glanced at Poe and the relief fluttered away at the sight of his grave expression. His parents had been part of the Rebellion and he had been part of this for his entire life. Still, he had immediately accepted Finn the moment he decided to defect, so perhaps it would work out.

"Why don't we all sit down," Rose suggested gently and she sank onto the seat next to Rey. It was probably meant to be a show of support but it made Rey feel trapped between her and the others as they settled on the other side of her.

"I haven't… I haven't been completely truthful with you. About quite a few things, actually."

"I'm sure you've been doing your best," Finn told her quickly.

Rose shot him a look. "Let her speak."

Poe folded his arms over his chest and Finn looked hurt, which were not encouraging signs. Was it too late to flee?

"I didn't kill Snoke," she forced out, figuring it was the most innocuous way to start a conversation she was realizing she did not want to have.

"You didn't?" Finn said incredulously.

"Is he still alive?" Poe wanted to know at the same time.

"No, he's dead. I saw it happen but I didn't do it. Kylo Ren killed him. To save me," she added quickly to preempt more comments that would only make this harder. "To save me from Snoke, who meant to kill me," she clarified.

"Why?" Finn asked, visibly upset at the idea. Poe seemed to take this information more in stride, to Rey's surprise.

The bluntness of the question threw her off. She was prepared to discuss simple cause and effect and the facts of what happened. Explaining Ben's actions, or her own, were going to be much more difficult. "I… I went there to bring him back. To the Light Side," she began.

"Why would you try to save Kylo Ren?" Poe's question was harshly rhetorical.

Rey glanced at Rose, who looked at her encouragingly. "Luke Skywalker did it with Darth Vader. I thought I could do the same, maybe."

Finn leaned forward to catch her attention. "It was courageous of you to try, but Vader was Luke's father. You can't blame yourself for not being able to reach someone like Kylo Ren."

The implication made her bristle. "I did reach him. He killed his master for me. I just… I just didn't think through the consequences very well. He wasn't ready to leave with me."

"With you?" Poe echoed skeptically.

"Yes, I thought… Since Luke Skywalker refused to come out of his exile, getting Ben on our side would be what we needed to win."

"Ben? Who's Ben?"

The anger in Finn's voice brought a swift return of her own. "Ben is Ben Solo, Han and Leia's son, who turned to the Dark Side because of his family failed to protect him and Luke Skywalker tried to kill him!"

At least they were silent in the face of her rage, eyes wide and mouths agape.

"He didn't want to be on the Dark Side, he only wanted to stay with the First Order because he wanted some control over his own life. And I… I was thinking of him as our tool instead of theirs. It was wrong of me not to let him make his own choice. Which he did, to save me from the Emperor! He gave his life to save me," she added, aware of the tears coursing down her cheeks and wondering vaguely when those had started.

"How do you know so much about Kylo Ren?" Poe asked quietly after a pause.

"We…" her voice caught in her throat and she sniffled. "We are Dyad in the Force, we're connected." It came out as a whisper and fresh tears started at the realization that she should have used the past tense.

Poe leaned back and regarded her. She couldn't bring herself to look at Finn but could feel disappointment and a sense of betrayal rolling off him in the Force. "You have been in contact with Kylo Ren for over a year?" was Poe's strangely patient question.

"Yes," she admitted.

"You have been privy to Resistance secrets, going on missions with us that were of utmost importance, and you were in contact with the Supreme Leader of the First Order the entire time? You didn't think that, maybe, you should let us know you were compromised?" If she hadn't been able to feel his anger, it would be plain enough even if his voice did not raise or waver.

"I wasn't compromised!" she snapped defensively.

"You recklessly went to the Supremacy to save a man you barely knew. You failed to bring Luke Skywalker back – presumably because you blame him for Kylo Ren existing. You stayed on our secret base to train and the moment you stepped off of it on Pasana, the First Order found us. They were awfully quick to find us on Kijimi as well, now that I think of it. I suppose I should be grateful that he never found our base – or was that something you two worked out? You seem pretty compromised to me, anyway."

Finn and Rose looked at her and it was clear they had not put those things together. Poe was right, of course. She was compromised. She'd done her best to keep Ben from finding them, but there was little she could really keep from him. Especially after he'd found new resolve with the idea of bringing her to his side in order to defeat the Emperor.

"You told me you had a vision of the Throne of the Sith," Finn said slowly and her heart sank like a stone. "That you were on it. But so was Kylo Ren. What exactly did you mean by that, Rey?"

She cleared her throat, her anger fizzling at the betrayal and disappointment on their faces. "He offered me his hand when he killed Snoke. To join him and rule the First Order. I declined then, but…"

"But you've been contemplating joining him this whole time. What a great boon it's been to have the last Jedi on our side – with her refusing to go on missions and leading the First Order right to us. Not to mention all that with Palpatine. You want to tell us more about that, Rey?" Poe demanded.

There was no reason to delay the inevitable – she could already see that fleeing back to the Outer Rim was in her future. She'd pick a green planet this time, though. "I'm his granddaughter."

"Whose?" Rose wanted to know, looking confused.

"The Emperor's. I'm a Palpatine," she clarified.

"How is that even possible? He was dead a decade before you were born," Rose muttered, more to herself than anything. Rey shrugged helplessly.

"Palpatine, of all people, had children?" Poe seemed visibly disgusted at the idea and Rey almost laughed at his revulsion.

Finn shook his head, ignoring logistics. "It doesn't matter who your parents were, Rey. You can join the good side at any point. I don't understand why you didn't tell us about Kyl – about Ben. We could have helped. But being compassionate is important for our last Jedi. We can't fault you for that. Right, Poe?"

Poe was clearly still caught on the idea of the Emperor procreating but he shook his head slightly to clear it before nodding. "We accept all kinds into the Resistance. It would have caused a stir, but we would have let Kylo Ren change sides, too. Hux did, apparently, so there's hope for anyone."

Rey looked at her friends' faces and was shocked that her lineage meant so little to them. That her relationship with Ben was of a concern mainly because she had kept it to herself and hurt them tactically. Not because he was their enemy. She had expected derision or hatred, not disappointment and understanding. That her friends cared enough about her to look past her faults was a raw feeling and she swallowed heavily as tears continued tracing down her face.

"Well," Rose said quietly. "Thank you for confiding in us, Rey. I'm sorry you've been bearing this on your own for so long."

Poe and Finn nodded, all three of them looking at her with compassion. They weren't happy about her revelations, clearly, but were accepting of them. She took a deep shuddering breath and forced a smile.

"It's alright. I think I'm going to go lay down for a bit, if you don't mind." No one protested, so Rey returned to her quarters, to consider how her friends could fit into her dreams of the future.